The Symposium will be held on Friday, February 26, 2010, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Tulane University's Uptown Campus in the Lavin-Bernick Center, Kendall Cram Lecture Hall.

The A. B. Freeman School of Business is pleased to announce the Burkenroad Institute's Symposium. The 17th Annual Symposium on Business and Society will address "The Quest for Fool's Gold: The Risks and Rewards of Ermeging Technologies." Through the Annual Symposium on Business and Society, the Institute's objective is to focus attention on the corporate social responsibilities of business leaders as well as to stimulate thought and discussion among students, faculty, executives, and community leaders about some of the difficult issues that face today's leaders and managers. National experts in business, education, journalism, and policy-making participate in this annual conference. This year's distinguished panelists are as follows:

David L. Carroll is the Director of the Center for Nanotechnology and Molecular Materials and Associate Professor of Physics at Wake Forest University. Carroll established the Laboratory for Nanotechnology at Clemson University and moved his group in 2003 to establish the Center at Wake Forest. The move allowed Carroll's group to expand its work into the fields of biomedical nanotechnologies and to continue their work in nanocomposite organic devices such as photovoltaics. Carroll's team continues to push the state-of-the-art in performance of organic solar cells and the Center currently holds the world record for the highest efficiency organic solar cell. Carroll has a BS in physics from NC State University, a PhD in physics from Wesleyan University, and a postdoctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. He holds seven patents with eight more patent filings and has published the book, One Dimensional Metals. Carroll is a frequent consultant to a number of industrial clients and panelist at NSF and NASA. He has been actively involved in two spin-off companies utilizing technologies from his labs.

Stephen R. Connors is the Director of the Analysis Group for Regional Energy Alternatives (AGREA), part of the MIT Energy Initiative (MITEI), Massachusetts Institute of Technology. AGREA's primary research focus is in strategic planning in energy and the environment, with an emphasis on the transformation of regional energy infrastructures to simultaneously address energy security, climate change, and other energy challenges. He is on the editorial boards for the journals Wind Engineering and Sustainability Science and for the last several years has been a reviewer/judge for the Massachusetts Renewable Energy Trust, the MIT Deshpande Center, and the MIT Clean Energy Prize. Connors holds two degrees from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst (mechanical engineering and applied anthropology) and a master's degree from MIT in technology and policy. Connors is active in several Boston area initiatives, including AltWheels which focuses bringing alternative vehicle technologies and fuels to market.

Thomas B. Clarkson holds the positions of Director of Planning and Business Development at the Institute of Regenerative Medicine, Director of the New Venture Incubator, and adjunct professor of entrepreneurship teaching the course "Commercializing Innovation" in the school of business at Wake Forest University. He has been part of the executive team of several successful startup companies in the software, wireless, and networking areas. In addition, Clarkson has played key roles in identifying and implementing new business opportunities for larger firms in companies such as Intel and Qualcomm. Some of his current interests include the development of new translational models for faster and more capital efficient delivery of medical research to patients, prioritizing medical research for maximum societal and patient benefit, innovation led economic development, and bootstrap methodologies for startups.

This year's moderator is:

Laura B. Cardinal is the Director of the William B. and Evelyn Burkenroad Institute and Associate and Exxon Professor of Strategy at the A. B. Freeman School of Business, Tulane University. Her areas of expertise include managing innovation and R&D capabilities and understanding the evolution and adaptation of control systems. Dr. Cardinal is a National Science Foundation grant recipient and has published in Strategic Management Journal, Organization Science, Academy of Management Journal, and Journal of Accounting and Economics. She serves on the editorial boards of Strategic Management Journal and Organization Science. She previously was the Chair of the Competitive Strategy Interest Group of the Strategic Management Society and the Chair of the Technology and Innovation Management Division of the Academy of Management. Her book, Control in Organizations: New Directions in Theory and Research, (with S. Sitkin and K. Bijlsma-Frankema) is in press at Cambridge University Press for release in 2010.

The Symposium will be held on Friday, February 26, 2010, from 10:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on Tulane University's Uptown Campus in the Lavin-Bernick Center, Kendall Cram Lecture Hall.